From the pen of the persecuted: Dying - we live

Imprisoned for his faith between 1955-1980, Wong Ming-Dao was a leader in the Chinese house church movement until his death in 1991.  We are blessed by having some of his writings translated into English, including a collection of devotionals entitled Day by Day from which this selection is taken:

I die every day - I mean that, brothers - just as surely as I glory over you in Christ Jesus our Lord. - I Corinthians 15:31

This experience of Paul - 'I die every day' - should be the experience of every servant of the Lord; in fact, of every Christian. With a resolve of this nature, Christians would, covet nothing in the world and fear nothing in the world.

When Satan places before us such things as prestige, honour, profit and gain, we would say to him, 'Today I die. What would I do with those things?' Similarly when Satan threatens us with suffering, danger, invective and persecution, we would say to him, 'Today I die. Why should I still be I afraid of such things?' When Satan uses the prospect of death. to terrify us, we would say to him, 'Fine! Couldn't be better! I will today prepare to die!'

There are times when Satan uses the attractive things of the world to tempt us and there are other times when he uses all kinds of hateful things with which to threaten us. If we are attracted by his bait, we shall be caught on his hook. If we are fearful in the face of his threatening, we are in danger of capitulating to him. But so long as we maintain the resolution, 'Today I die,' then all of his devices become ineffective.